This invention is concerned with expansible luggage and more particularly with a carrying case in which a side wall is capable of limited movement away from a parallel side wall.
For years luggage manufacturers have attempted to provide suitcases and other carrying cases with the ability to expand to accommodate bulky contents. Usually the peripheral walls of the carrying case are provided with an expansion joint which permits the principal parallel side walls of the case to move apart under certain circumstances. Most of the expansion joints employed have been too complex and expensive for practicality, involving highly flexible gussets or elastomeric expansion bands that require unwieldy fastening arrangements for retaining the expansion joints in a contracted condition. See, for example, the structures disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,443,671; 3,450,237; and 3,523,596 to Dyke; French Pat. No. 1,101,785 (1955); Australian Pat. 2026/26; and Italian Pat. 459,299 (1950).
Other expansion joints have required specially constructed elastomeric bands, as in British Pat. No. 1,265,395. In another approach, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,002,878 to Belber, a side wall of an expansible bag is supported upon the peripheral walls by a complex spring arrangement. The handbag of U.S. Pat. No. 2,002,949 to Kenler includes a pleat structure for added bag capacity or for increased strength or for decorative purposes, but the pleat structure is clamped into channels employed in conjunction with a slide fastener and is not constructed to provide the type of expansion required by the present invention.